Day to Day With Mom

Angelika has been out of pullups now for a month or so. We were down to only a couple more pullups and I told my fiance not to buy any more that I thought it was safe to just use panties. I was correct. Angelika wakes up and goes to the potty, she knows when she needs to go and unlike my middle child she refuses to have anyone help her. She doesn’t want help wiping, getting the toilet paper, and you better not ever flush the toilet because that’s her job!

I’m not saying that she hasn’t had a few night time accidents because she has but not many. I find that sometimes I still have to wake her up to go potty but most of the time I hear her getting up on her own and rushing to the potty.

Even though she is my third pottying training venture I can’t say it enough that she was completely different. It has been a long process and I’ve learned quite a bit. I want everyone to know how important it is to understand that all children are different and your child will be ready when they want to be ready not when cousin Betty does it or even just because you want him or her to be ready. It’s ok not to be using the potty at age two, it’s ok if your child only goes potty once or twice a week I mean hey that’s where it starts!   Just don’t push your child into using the potty just because you think they should be doing it at this age, I learned with Angelika that using the potty is the least important hill she must climb and had I of worried too much about that fact that I honestly thought she’d be grown and wearing adult diapers I would have been too upset, stressed, and pre-occupied to see all of her other accomplishments.

The things I learned with Angelika that may help you with your child:

• Always leave a light on in the bathroom
• Make it fun, let them flush, let them wipe, allow them to enjoy this potty time
• NEVER spank them for not using it or for mistakes (seriously would you want to use the potty if you noticed that you were getting spankings all of a sudden now that this whole use the potty deal was going on)
• Always make you little feel proud about using the potty or even just sitting on the potty because that’s a huge deal for them as well.
• Just because your child has older brothers or sisters doesn’t mean that he or she will learn on the same level as them nor does it mean that they will learn from watching them use the potty.
• You child has to want to use the potty, no matter how much you want it for them THEY MUST BE READY!
• You can buy all the stickers, charts, books, and movies in the world but it doesn’t mean it will work with your child.

Spaghetti Carbonara  http://www.myperfectrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 350 g of Spaghetti
• 4 Eggs
• 200 g of Bacon
• 3 Tablespoons of extra virgin
• olive oil
• 100 g of Parmesan
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions

for 4 people

When water boils, add the spaghetti and cook them for about 6 – 8 minutes, after this time drain and place them in a bowl. Add the bacon, the beaten eggs and mix all together.
Serve hot.

I am exhausted! I have spent all day and some yesterday cleaning my house, not just cleaning but CLEANING! With it being summer we’ve noticed a high amount of bugs in the house once again. We have put off calling the exterminator because of our landlord but we just can’t take it any more! So I have been cleaning everything. It’s not that my house is messy but when you have four pups, a cat, three kids, and a man (smile) you tend to spend everyday cleaning the same stuff (over and over again) therefore I can never find time to clean anything else. WELL now it’s done! Under the beds, behind sofas, book shelves, my office and the piles of papers it holds. Yes I cleaned it all and while I am finally sitting down to write this you can believe that this is the first time I’ve RELAXED all day and I’m still NOT finished! Now if you aren’t feeling sorry enough for me here’s the kicker… I have to work tonight from 1am to 6am! So now you can feel sorry for me! Here are a few pics of my girls room, too bad I didn’t take a before picture! The only thing I wasn’t through with when they went to bed lastnight was to resweep their floor and mop b/c it’s dull and dusty looking. However I did throw out two bags of trash (old broken toys, books, ripped clothes) and even got a box of toys for the goodwill! And while the pictures aren’t really showing everything clean just picture most of the toys and stuffed animals that are in the totes all over the floor and under the beds because that’s where they were before.

Today is a day that my fiance and I have been waiting on for a really long time… we are having a date night! Now, we don’t plan on doing much because we are on a budget (which we refuse to get off of) but we are planning on going out to eat and just spending time together.

“Together” is the key word there, no kids, no pets, no work, just the two of us. This is seriously a day to write down on your calendars!

It use to be so simple to find time together, of course that was when we had only one kid to find childcare for now however there are three little monsters and it’s not as easy to find someone to keep all three of them for long periods of time. Our parents help us out quite a bit but we’ve constantly refused their help because we thought that we shouldn’t mess up someone elses day just to have a few hours by ourselves… yeah we’re over that now!

I absolutely love finding new and fun ways to keep my kids busy, I mean really what mother doesn’t like something that allows her five minutes of silence?! I found these really cute ideas at  http://www.mommytips.com I think I’ll be trying some of them out next week in hopes of keeping the kids busy while I’m exhausted from working all night!  

1)Pudding Paints

Toddler and pre-school kids love this project because they can eat what they create! This is a great activity for outside.

You will need:
Assortment of snack size puddings
Assortment of snack size yogurts
Wax paper

To Make:

Put large amounts of wax paper on a surface where messes are okay.
Dress your toddler so they can get messy!
Open up several different flavors of pudding and yogurt. These are the “paints”.
Give your toddler wooden or plastic spoons, cookie cutters, basting brushes or anything that they can “paint” with. Fingers and hands work just great too.

Hint: If you are using a table for your project dampen it first before you put the wax paper down. This will help keep the paper from sliding around.
Hint 2: Don’t allow kids with milk allergies to paint with the puddings.

2)Edible Necklace

You will need:

String or yarn
Cheerios or Fruit Loops

To make:
Cut string or yarn depending on how long you want the child’s necklace to be.
String the Cheerios or Fruit Loops on the yarn.
Tie together at the end.
The child can eat off the Cheerios or Fruit Loops from their necklace.

Hint: Make sure younger children don’t eat the string or yarn!
Hint: You can also use thin, long rope licorice instead of string or yarn.

3)Peanut Butter Play Dough

I wasn’t able to post Father’s Day pictures earlier so my thinking back Thursday seems to fit it just fine. Father’s day was spent in between my dad’s house and my house. We woke my fiance up with breakfast and gifts then headed over to my dad’s where we had lunch and fun in the pool! My fiance, my dad, and my son went fishing. Once my fiance and son got back home we headed to town to grab some food which we ate at the playground and finished the day off with some ice cream.  The father’s all had a good time and the kids were exhausted!

Today was a beautiful warm and from time to time breezy day so I decided to hang my clothes out on the line.  I love the fresh air and sun I get while I’m hanging them out and bringing each load back into the house, I love that the girls get to play outside for a while each time I go out to put a load of clothes on the line, but what I don’t love are the BUGS!

I was greeted by this critter today. When I went to grab the clothes pin I screamed so loud I think I woke up the whole town!  He’s not the cutest bug in the world and he’s not the most frightening one either but you best believe he stayed on that clothes pin while I took in the rest of the clothes, as far as I was concerned he could keep that shirt! However my three year old had other plans so she threw a stick at him and hit him off of the clothes pin then pulled way down on the shirt which in return threw the bug wayyyy up in the air and down to the ground. At this point I felt very sorry for the bug and told my daughter to never do that again! I asked her how she would feel if a bug was mean to her… her reply… “but that’s my shirt!”

I apologize for writing this so late in the day… it’s 7:27pm here in  North Carolina and I just now find myself able to sit down and think about recipes that I may want to cook or hope that someone reading this may be able to try out and tell me how good or bad it was. I began working from midnight to 6am again lastnight and it’s really taking me a bit to get myself use to those hours again.  Since I’m tired and not thinking clearly… plus my fiance is cooking and the smell has me thinking that every recipe looks wonderful, I decided to send my son into the kitchen to ask his dad how this recipe sounded. However, he doesn’t realize that I am doing this for my blog and tells my son that it sounds fine if we lived in Hawaii of course when my son tells him that it’s for my blog he changes and says it sounds great.      

This does not settle well with me because if it isn’t something we wouldn’t eat why do I want to shar it with all of you? MEN are amazing aren’t they I can’t fuss though because he’s in the kitchen cooking after working all day just so I can have a moment… plus he wanted to use his new deep fryer he got for father’s day. He’s not fooling me on that! ;0)

Anyway I find the recipe to be quite interesting and different so I am going to post it!

         Grilled Coconut Shrimp with Pineapple Salsa

   For the pineapple salsa:

1 1/2 cup canned or fresh crushed pineapple, drained
1 jalapeño chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt to taste

For the grilled shrimp:

1/2 cup lite coconut milk
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger root
1 tablespoon brown sugar
20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
freshly ground black pepper
3 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup cilantro sprigs
4 metal or bamboo (soaked in water) skewers

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

For the pineapple salsa:
1. Place the pineapple, jalapeño pepper and red pepper in a bowl and toss to combine. Season to taste with lime juice and salt. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
(This can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

For the grilled shrimp:
2. Combine the coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, ginger and brown sugar in a shallow bowl. Add the shrimp, toss to coat the shrimp evenly and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

3. Preheat the grill to medium.

4. Remove the shrimp from the coconut mixture. Season with salt and pepper and place 5 shrimp on each skewer.

5. Place the skewers on the grill and cook until the shrimp are just done, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.

6. To serve, spoon some Basmati Rice on each plate, remove the shrimp from the skewer and top with the salsa. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Serving Size: 5 shrimp with 3/4 cup of rice and 1/2 cup of salsa

Only a few more days until Father’s Day and I still don’t know what we are doing. I know that I’m going to see my dad and eat lunch over there and I’m going shopping tomorrow with Brandon to pick up some last minute presents for my fiance but he still hasn’t said what he wants to do… I take that back he wants to go out to eat for supper and out for ice cream afterwards so I guess that’s a start.

I came across some really cute Father’s Day books today. I have to admit Father’s Day books are actually something my kids don’t have. Looks like I might find them something for Father’s Day also!

Caillou~ My Daddy  for ages infant to preschool

A Perfect Father’s Day~ by Eve Bunting for ages 4-8

The Secret Father’s Day Present~ by Andrew Clements for ages 4-8.

Father’s Day~ by Anne Rockwell

There’s nothing like starting off summer vacation with a little yard work, afternoon storms, fresh tomatoes, and finally some relaxation! Yes my kitty is a little older then the last picture I got of her like this and yet this is still her favorite spot!